Houzz Tour: Same Same But Different
A contemporary addition to a Herne Bay heritage villa has more in common with its neighbour than you'd think
The owners of this renovated villa in Herne Bay had long admired another project of architect Gerrad Hall’s – a courtyard house in nearby Freemans Bay they had visited on an architecture tour of the suburb several years ago. They had always loved the materiality and sense of enclosure in that house – so when it came to renovate their villa, they called Hall.
“It had lean-to on lean-to on lean-to,” says Hall of the villa, which the owners had lived in for some years before deciding to renovate, “steadily getting smaller and smaller as they reached out to the garden.”
“It had lean-to on lean-to on lean-to,” says Hall of the villa, which the owners had lived in for some years before deciding to renovate, “steadily getting smaller and smaller as they reached out to the garden.”
But the addition is far from a contemporary intrusion. “They had a tone that they wanted the house to have,” he says, “and it seemed to me to be asking for some sense of permanence.” This is no lightweight glass pavilion: there is a lot of wall – especially on the second storey to guard against that western sun – and a solidity from the poured concrete, though it has a beautiful relationship with the lawn. The owners wanted a casual, liveable house – but they also wanted something special, says Hall. “In the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘well, if you do something clashy someone else is going to come along in 15 or 20 years and fix it up’,” he says. “If you can make it fit in then it might last a little longer.”
Most importantly, the addition is complementary in scale and flow to that of the old house – the hallway still runs through the house and opens out into the living room. Original villas had high ceilings and wide hallways, square rooms with tall sash windows and deliberate openings – even the smallest, most humble villas had a sense of generosity that more modern houses lack. To complement this, Hall created a series of rooms that are generous without being grandiose, enclosing and yet airy – almost like a verandah.
It is a beautiful balance, with one difference. Instead of following the classic villa stud height, he played with ceilings, creating a dramatic double-height kitchen and dining area on one side, with a snug, sunken living room on the other, below the master bedroom. At ground level, the pavilion opens up completely to the garden and the pool, through full-height sliding timber doors built by Nicks Timber Joinery, which sit beautifully with the raw concrete ceiling and neutral palate of grey-on-grey.
It is a beautiful balance, with one difference. Instead of following the classic villa stud height, he played with ceilings, creating a dramatic double-height kitchen and dining area on one side, with a snug, sunken living room on the other, below the master bedroom. At ground level, the pavilion opens up completely to the garden and the pool, through full-height sliding timber doors built by Nicks Timber Joinery, which sit beautifully with the raw concrete ceiling and neutral palate of grey-on-grey.
And instead of shiny new fittings and a strong contemporary edge, Hall and interior designer Yvette Jay developed a neutral palette of grey, black and timber. Materials are matt rather than shiny, pre-worn or left in their natural state and allowed to wear in nicely.
In the kitchen, for instance, the cabinetry (built by Johannes Erren Cabinetmakers) is black-stained oak, while the benches are made from concrete poured on site; the floors are dark wide-plank oak (from Artedomus), while the steel staircase is black steel, left to oxidise as the house ages – parts of the steel handrail are polishing up where its owners have come into contact with it. “Anything that is glossy or new will fade and it will never be as good as the day you bought it,” says Hall, “whereas natural or matt have started fading already. The things that happen add stories, and invites history in.”
In the kitchen, for instance, the cabinetry (built by Johannes Erren Cabinetmakers) is black-stained oak, while the benches are made from concrete poured on site; the floors are dark wide-plank oak (from Artedomus), while the steel staircase is black steel, left to oxidise as the house ages – parts of the steel handrail are polishing up where its owners have come into contact with it. “Anything that is glossy or new will fade and it will never be as good as the day you bought it,” says Hall, “whereas natural or matt have started fading already. The things that happen add stories, and invites history in.”
The effect continues in the sunken living room, where the raw concrete ceiling creates a snug, cosy space centred around a fireplace, looking out over the pool and the lawn. It’s a serene, slightly compressed space, the more so for the contrast between this space and the kitchen next to it. Here, too, the focus was on texture and contrast and matt finishes – plaster on the fireplace, concrete on the ceiling. “Being contemporary can have different meanings,” says Hall of the classic approach, “and one of them is being of the moment. But then once that moment has passed, what do you have then?”
As with many houses of its era, the house sits in the wrong place on the site, which runs away to the south-west. “It’s all backwards actually,” says Hall. The driveway down to the single-car garage is on the north side, as were neighbours able to look into the garden. As a result, the only place to put the family room extension was on the northern boundary – though this is ameliorated with a roof of louvres that open over the deck, a skylight in the family room and high-level windows in the kitchen, all of which drag in northern sun.
The appeal of the courtyard is immediately apparent here – there are views across and over the grassy lawn. “I always work on the diagonal,” says Hall, “so your perceived idea of space is from the far corner of the living room to the far corner of that outdoor area. You just feel like all of those spaces are working with the one landscaped area.”
The appeal of the courtyard is immediately apparent here – there are views across and over the grassy lawn. “I always work on the diagonal,” says Hall, “so your perceived idea of space is from the far corner of the living room to the far corner of that outdoor area. You just feel like all of those spaces are working with the one landscaped area.”
From the street, the house – which is in a tightly controlled heritage zone – gives only the smallest hint that the back of the house is any different to the front: you can see a peek of the flat roof of the extension, a single-pane glass door into the kitchen, which these days is invariably used more than the proper ‘front door’ of the house. While the additions are entirely modern, Hall was careful to respect the original – there’s no double garage door leading to a new basement under the old house, for instance, which is often seen in ‘heritage’ renovations in the surrounding suburb and leads to vast expanses of concrete where once there was a front garden.
Council planners, while initially sceptical, were won over by the scheme: Hall’s design called for the meticulous restoration of the original villa, a process that involved replumbing, repiling and rewiring, as well as restoring the front verandah which had been closed in some time in the 1920s with a bungalow feel.
Council planners, while initially sceptical, were won over by the scheme: Hall’s design called for the meticulous restoration of the original villa, a process that involved replumbing, repiling and rewiring, as well as restoring the front verandah which had been closed in some time in the 1920s with a bungalow feel.
The interior of the house was completely gutted, the bones fixed up and the rooms relined – though the builders used original mouldings where possible, and retained the original kauri floorboards. “We were sort of conscious of the history of the house, so we didn’t want to throw them away. And having doors that are knocked around a bit actually looks good.”
The hall now leads down past children’s bedrooms and a bathroom, and looks out over the double-height void of the kitchen: in villas, you often looked down the hallway and out over the back garden – so Hall designed a specially placed window at the end, looking out through the timber screen to the garden. “That seemed quite critical to me,” he says. “Having that double-height space means you can still look down the corridor and see the garden at the end.”
The walls here are painted Resene White Pointer, a soft white that suits the age of the house.
The hall now leads down past children’s bedrooms and a bathroom, and looks out over the double-height void of the kitchen: in villas, you often looked down the hallway and out over the back garden – so Hall designed a specially placed window at the end, looking out through the timber screen to the garden. “That seemed quite critical to me,” he says. “Having that double-height space means you can still look down the corridor and see the garden at the end.”
The walls here are painted Resene White Pointer, a soft white that suits the age of the house.
In the ensuite bathroom next to the master bedroom, meanwhile, the feel is distinctly modern, with large-format grey tiles on the floor and marble mosaic tiles from Artdedomus.
To connect the two halves of the building, Hall designed a stair with concrete risers and a steel screen that reaches up to the full height of the space, drawing your eye upwards.
Hall loves concrete. “When you’re going down stairs, the way your foot falls on the stairs is really important,” he says. “Concrete’s got a tiny reverberation, but it still feels really solid.” Light, meanwhile, spills down from a massive skylight above, a mood that shifts and changes throughout the day.
Hall loves concrete. “When you’re going down stairs, the way your foot falls on the stairs is really important,” he says. “Concrete’s got a tiny reverberation, but it still feels really solid.” Light, meanwhile, spills down from a massive skylight above, a mood that shifts and changes throughout the day.
The stairs and benches were poured on site by contractor Sam Wood – who loves concrete almost as much as Hall – and the steel screen was built by Murray Couling of Couling Engineering. The steel was left unadorned. “By the time steel gets to site it’s got that black oxidisation on it already so we just left it in that natural state,” says Hall. “Wherever we worked on something or ground it off, we left that exposed too – it’s using all the marks of how it was produced as decoration.”
“This is my first villa renovation,” says Hall, reflectively. “I’ve lived in the area for years but nothing ever came up – which is lucky in a way.” Instead, he spent years designing contemporary houses, often in heritage zones surrounded by old wooden villas – a process that gave him a greater appreciation of the form. “I think your first instinct out of architecture school is to be quite aggressive in taking them on. But as time has gone on, I’ve realised how clean and durable the architecture of the villa is. I get the sense they will probably outlive anything I do.”
TELL US
Have you renovated a house in a heritage area? How did you deal with the distinction between old and new?
TELL US
Have you renovated a house in a heritage area? How did you deal with the distinction between old and new?
Who lives here: A family with their two young children
Location: Herne Bay, Auckland
House size: 250 square metres; four bedrooms and two bathrooms
His response was an elegant one: Hall demolished all the lean-tos and then inserted a long, tall west-facing extension, the upper storey wrapped in white timber screens to ward off late-afternoon sun. The lower storey, meanwhile, is a restrained combination of concrete and white timber joinery. Along one side of the garden, meanwhile, he designed a one-storey extension, creating a much-needed family room and providing privacy from neighbours on the high side of the section.